Folke Bernadotte

Folke Bernadotte (2 January 1895-17 September 1948) was a Swedish diplomat and nobleman. Bernadotte negotiated the release of 31,000 prisoners from Nazi concentration camps during World War II and attempted to mediate the Israel-Palestine conflict on behalf of the United Nations, only to be assassinated by the Stern Gang terrorists in Jerusalem.

Biography
Folke Bernadotte was born in Stockholm, Sweden on 2 January 1895, the nephew of King Gustav V of Sweden. Bernadotte was involved in work for humanitarian causes for most of his life, particularly on behalf of the Red Cross. During World War II, he managed to establish good contacts with Heinrich Himmler, thanks to which he was able to save around 30,000 people (including 20,000 Scandinavians) from Nazi concentration camps. In return, he was asked by Himmler to arrange peace talks with the Allied Powers in 1945, to Adolf Hitler's great irritation. He became president of the Swedish Red Cross in 1946, and he was asked by Trygve Lie to act as a mediator in Palestine in 1948 for the UN. On 17 September 1948, the three-man center of Lehi (Yitzhak Shamir, Natan Yellin-Mor, and Yisrael Eldad) approved the killing of Bernadotte, hoping to prevent the partition of Mandatory Palestine. Bernadotte's vehicle ran into a roadblock at the Ben Zion Guini Square in Jerusalem, and he was gunned down by the Lehi terrorist Yehoshua Cohen.